How A Suit Should Fit

When it comes to tailored clothing, nothing --not fabric, craftsmanship, or provenance-- is more important than fit.  After all, it doesn't matter how fine the fabric is, or how many tailors hand-stitched the finishing details if the thing is hanging off your shoulders and grazing your knuckles like a prom rental. 


The Shoulder
This is the single most important part of the fit of a jacket. Every other part of the garment can be re-cut, but the shoulder is the deal breaker. The pad (if there is one) should come right to the widest part of your shoulder muscle—and never past it. If it does, return the suit and go down a size. Period.


Trouser Length
Because suit pants, typically, come unfinished, you’ll have to get them hemmed. So the power is in your hands here. No break is the way things are going these days, this works best if your trousers are slim. If you’re more of a traditional cut kind of guy, go for a small break. And the large break? Save it for your 60-year-old tax-lawyer. (And hey, no offense to tax lawyers—they saved us a bundle last year.)

Sleeve Length
As with trousers, the power is in your hands here, so exercise it properly. With arms at your sides, your suit sleeve should extend just past your wrist, just to the base of your thumb. Too long, and it’ll look like you’ve broken into Dad’s closet again. But “if your cuff goes much higher than your wrist, you run the risk of looking like Lurch.”  And as everyone knows, the Lurch look isn’t due to get big ‘til fall 2013.

Pants Volume

Nothing undercuts a smartly tailored suit coat like a pair of big,billowy pants. Your pants should be cut to the same trimness as the jacket, if not slimmer. And while most guys tend to get their suit pants altered in the waist only, a good tailor can recut—and reinvent—your trousers from top to bottom for around $50.


Neapolitan Tug (or lack Thereof)
Finally, a jacket should follow the shape of your body, but it should stop short of pulling when it’s buttoned.  A dapper man might go for a slight tug. Ultimately, this one’s your call. If your occupation involves more conference rooms than catwalks, you may want to give yourself a bit more room. 


On jacket length,back in the day, the rule was that you should be able to curl your fingers around the hem of your jacket, but now the right jacket length is around the first or second joint of your thumb.